Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and informed members that as a result of the resignation of the previous Independent Person and Reserve Independent Persons, a new Independent Person and Reserve had been appointed following a recruitment process.  She was pleased to welcome Paul Ryan, Reserve Independent Person, who was in attendance at the meeting.  The Independent Person, Tony Drew, had not been able to attend on this occasion.  Members introduced themselves.

The Democratic Services Officer read out the emergency evacuation procedure as set out on the agenda.

Apologies had been received from Councillors Sally Davis and Geoff Ward, Dr Axel Palmer and Dr Cyril Davies.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There were none.

There was no urgent business.

There were none.

There were none.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting on 19^th May 2016 be confirmed as a correct record and be signed by the Chair(person).

There will be a verbal report from the Monitoring Officer.

The Monitoring Officer, Maria Lucas, gave a verbal update report on the assessment of complaints.  Four new complaints had recently been received and were in the process of assessment.  Two of the complaints involved an incident with two Bath and North East Somerset Councillors.  Another involved a complaint by a member of the public against two Parish Councillors and one Bath and North East Somerset Councillor.  The last was a complaint by a member of the public against a Bath and North East Councillor.  It had been agreed that the investigation of the outstanding complaint would be paused as the subject had only recently contacted the investigator. 

RESOLVED to note the verbal update on the assessment of complaints.

The Chair thanked the Monitoring Officer for the report.  It was confirmed that before the report was finalised, the Chair would provide her forward and the report would be submitted to full Council in November.  An annual report could then be considered by Standards Committee prior to submission to the Annual Council in May.

Members discussed the report and made the following comments/amendments, including the written comments from Councillor Sally Davis who was not able to attend:-

·  In section 7 of the report (page 18 and 19) “Bath and North East Somerset Councillor” should be used in full and the description “Parish or Town Councillor” used

·  Page 16 last line - to read, “The Committee conducts proceedings…”

·  Section 6 (page18) first line – “the Standards Committee agrees…”

·  Section 5 (page 18) – to include that a new Independent Person and Reserve had been recruited

·  Section 5 delete the word “first”

It was noted that while there was a Reserve Independent Person, there did not appear to be any reserve independent members for the Standards Committee.  The Monitoring Officer agreed to clarify the position of the independent members.

An increase in the number of complaints from 2014/15 to 2015/16 from 16 to 24 was noted.  The Monitoring Officer stated that the explanation behind this was that at least one incident involving the same councillors had resulted in several complaints.  The Monitoring Officer would add a note to that effect to the report.

RESOLVED that delegated authority be given to the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, in consultation with the Chair of Standards Committee, to finalise the Standards Committee draft annual report, including the Chair’s forward and taking into account the comments/amendments received at the meeting and prior to its submission to the Council meeting.

The meeting was informed that the Standards Committee scheduled for 24^th November 2016 would not be needed, as mentioned previously, the complaint could not be dealt with in this timescale.

The Code of Conduct report to be considered at the January 2017 Committee would deal with the issue where councillors were unable to speak on a planning item which involved them.  There was a guidance note for councillors written by the previous Monitoring Officer which needed some amendment. 

RESOLVED to note the workplan for the Standards Committee.